Welcome to Mulbarton

When the Village Sign was unveiled in 1979 by our then recently-retired Rector he said: "Mulbarton has NO history". This site proves him wrong....! There is history everywhere - but of ordinary people in an ordinary village 5 miles south of Norwich, Norfolk.

Village sign before being erected. It was the final tribute to the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

The village sign shows the church with (left) Baron William de St Omer, who became Lord of the Manor of Mulbarton by money and marriage in the reign of Henry II. His son Thomas (d.1364) (re)built the church, supposedly as a penance. On the right is Sir Edwin Rich, Lord of the Manor in the 17th century and a benefactor of the village. His monument is at the west end of the church. The design was suggested by Rev C J H Sanderson, Rector 1960-78, and carved by Harry Carter of Swaffham.

In the 'Little' Domesday Book of 1086 the village is MOLKEB[ART]TUNA meaning 'the outlying dairy farm' (extract below). The population then may have been around 150.

By 1800 it was nearly 500 - and remained around the 500 mark for 150 years. Then the village was allowed to grow by the planners - and GROW it did, with Council housing in the '50s; small housing estates south of the Common in the '60s and then large developments from the early '70s to the present day. By 2011 the population had topped 3,500 and continues to rise.... ('hover' over these maps & air photos to see the dates)

The Book of Mulbarton

The Book of Mulbarton is a large-format hard-back with 160 pages and hundreds of photographs and other illustrations. Originally published by Halsgrove in 2006, it soon sold out and was reprinted with minor updates and corrections in 2009.

The authors, Jill & David Wright, have lived in Mulbarton since 1964 and have written children's atlases and information books. Jill Wright was involved in developing a now lost website of village history with the Forum Trust, after which villagers who had lent photos suggested they be put in a book.

The price is still £19.99 and copies can be obtained from bookshops, from the publishers, Halsgrove, or within the village at Paddock Farm Shop or from the author Jill Wright whom you can CONTACT via this website.

Researching family in Mulbarton? WELCOME! Transcripts of Registers & MIs can be accessed from the CHURCH page or theLINKS. Other transcripts are being added.

The 'HOUSES' section has been expanded to include 'PEOPLE' and a new page added for 'Mulbartonians'.

1914-1918

A new link to information on ALL the men of Mulbarton who served in WW1 under Men at War.

MULBARTON HERITAGE GROUP

A small group of local people who seek to promote Mulbarton's heritage by arranging meetings and projects to which ALL are welcome - there is NO membership.

But we desperately need MORE people to help organise, and MORE ideas.

If you would like to be involved, then please CONTACT us.

WW1 PROJECT

can YOU help?

We have found some information on almost all of the 90 MULBARTON men listed on the Roll of Honour of those who went to war. But so far we have only photos of 2 men and some memories of 1 of these.... If YOU have photos or information - or you know descendants who might have - please get in touch with JILL Wright (via the CONTACT page or see in Parish News p.5)

More Local History

Copyright & Copyleft, etc.

This site has been created by Jill Wright on behalf of the Mulbarton Heritage Group using material collected for a previous heritage website (www.norfolkheritage.org.uk) in conjunction with the Forum Trust, Norwich. Much of the material was then published in The Book of Mulbarton. Photographs were scanned, memories recorded, letters copied and notes made under the COPYLEFT principle. The Wikipedia definition is "Copyleft (a play on the word copyright) is the practice of offering people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative works down the line." Anything copied or quoted from this site MUST acknowledge its source and MUST NOT be used commercially.

To the best of the editor's knowledge no photos or other items are copyright (and quotes from books and newspapers have been kept within the allowed limit). However, if you find anything here that should not be freely available, please CONTACT us and it can be removed.

THANKS....

....to all who have contributed photos, memories, articles, objects to photograph, etc. The list of names is too long for here, but most of you are listed in 'The Book of Mulbarton' although some have come forward with further information since that was reprinted in 2009.